Ms McHale questions the Minister for Health regarding the number of FTE child health nurses employed by various WA health entities, both currently and historically. The Minister's response highlights data collection limitations and a shift towards service-based purchasing rather than FTE tracking.

AnsweredQoN 336Legislative Assembly
Asked
9 August 2000
Member
Portfolio
Health

QuestionView source ↗

336. Ms McHALE to the Minister for Health:
(1) How many Full Time Equivalent (FTE) child health nurses are currently employed by -
(a) the WA Health Department;
(b) the Metropolitan Health Services Board; and
(c) Rural Health Services?
(2) How many FTE child health nurses are budgeted for in the 2000/01 financial year?
(3) How many FTE child health nurses were employed by the above mentioned departments or agencies in the following financial years -
(a) 1992/93;
(b) 1993/94;
(c) 1994/95;
(d) 1995/96;
(e) 1996/97;
(f) 1997/98;
(g) 1998/99; and
(h) 1999/00?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
14 November 2000
Response time
97 days
The Minister Replied:
(1) The Health Department of Western Australia (HDWA) does not purchase health service delivery based on inputs such as FTE. The HDWA purchases services based on occasions of service for a range of child health services undertaken by child health nurses. The services include post natal visits, child health clinics and services in schools.
(a) Nil
(b) Government Health industry data provided to HDWA shows there are 91.5 FTE with the job title of Child Health Nurse. However, this can only be considered as an estimate of the total number of FTE.
(c) Government Health industry data provided to HDWA shows there are 26.6 FTE with the job title of Child Health Nurse. However, this can only be considered as an estimate of the total number of FTE.
(2) The HDWA is purchasing the same services provided by Child Health Nurses in 2000/01 as in 1999/00 and therefore the FTE should remain the same or similar.
(3) The information is not collected in the manner that has been requested. Prior to June 2000 data collected from the health services did not identify the occupation of "Child Health Nurse" separately from other job classifications/titles such as "Registered Nurse". As there is no code for Child Health Nurses, information prior to June 2000 would be very difficult to collect and there would be problems with the integrity of the data.

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